Tag Archives: Engagement portraits

As a photographer we get a lot of questions about family portraits. What should we bring, wear, expect? We often say bring laughter and happiness, wear what’s comfortable and a smile and expect to have fun! Sometimes that isn’t enough of an answer. I have some great tips below to make your beach portrait experience amazing and fun!

What to wear:
Often khaki pants or blue jeans with a white or blue shirt look great. But you are not limited to this. It is ok to be creative. Keep the size of your group in mind when choosing what to wear.

Here are some ideas for what to wear:
-Have a different color for each family. This is great for group photos that involve more than one family.
-Females wear one color and the males wear another.
-Just coordinate the shirt color and wear the bottoms you would like.
-Coordinate the men in the family and allow the women to dress in dresses or outfits that compliment them.
-Wear a special family vacation shirt.
-Bring a change of clothes for the individual family portraits sessions. You can change after the group photo is taken. Make sure it is something that you can quick change into in case there are no places to change at the shoot and so you don’t lose a lot of time.
-Dress in your best casual wear (try to avoid competing patterns). Wear colors that look good on you. Choose colors from the same color palette. Example choose from blues or greens but don’t state a specific tone. Also choose something easy to pose in.
– Wear the same colors
-Not all the pictures need to be formal. Add some fun to your shots. Cowboy hats, sunglasses, feather boas and funny glasses are a few suggestions.
-Wear Santa hats for that Christmas card in the winter 🙂
-Bring props- football, musical instrument, surf boards, etc…
-Bring a change of clothes. Large groups should try to be as efficient as possible so you don’t lose a lot of time.

Babies and children:
Change of clothes- dressy and casual or a princess outfit, costumes, etc…
Blanket- for hot sand and those who don’t like sand as well as for infants.
Babies/infants- Cute baskets to sit in (large), sit on toys (rocking horse, etc…)
*Toys- shovel & bucket, dump truck, special toys, etc… Also bring a small toy for a family member or the photographer to shake for the small children so they will focus in the direction of the camera.
Favorite teddy bear or stuffed animal
Beach chair-kid size
Hat and sunglasses
Santa hats
Be creative!

A great use of whites and bluesThis family added the blue bow-ties for fun. They took them off and then took more images without the blue accents.This group works together. The shirts are from the company. They changed for their individual family portraits.This is a multi-family group. They wanted a group photo on the stairs of the house and a repeat on the beach. They were color coordinated per familyThis was a multi-family group. The colors show each family unit.Very fun and colorful.I love these super fun and beachy colors! Enough said! 🙂This family stuck to blues. Lighter blues for the men. Darker blue for the women and white with blue accents for the smaller children.This couple had their images done in the winter. They both enjoy the outdoors. They were able to coordinate colors very nicely.I love the color that the women wore. I also love that the girls wore accents of those colors on their dresses.This family had fun bringing hats 🙂A hat can change everything 🙂This family brought an Adirondack chair to the beach.